Finally, Civilisation

General Summary

Vol Dorma is close now, but there’s one last hurdle to overcome.

Safety Measures
The last stretch of the journey with the Desert Crows begins early in the morning. Valentin announces that, due to heightened darkspawn activity, there are going to be some changes and safety measures coming into effect for the last days of the trip. All children and elderly people are moved to the armoured mercenary carts that always used to flank the civilian carts, at least until this point. The mercenaries as well as all capable adults who can fight if things turn rough, are to evenly spread across the civilian carts. These simple wooden carts are equipped with some minor enchantments that will shield off potential incoming attacks – at least to some degree. The armoured carts with the most defenceless travellers are moved to the core of the caravan, while the civilian carts form several outer layers of protection.
The group has to spread out across several carts now, but they try to stick somewhat close together, Max and Auron join up in one cart together, as do Junius and Harold, and Jeska and Claudia respectively. Mira is in a cart together with two other mercenaries and some civilians.
Everyone is still half asleep when the caravan starts moving once the sun has fully risen. As a precaution, and to be able to quickly flee should they run into another darkspawn encounter, the Desert Crows decided to not set up camp anymore for the rest of the journey, only take rest stops now and then to feed the horses and brontos. Everyone sleeps in the carts at night, huddled together for warmth.
During this first of the three last days of their journey Auron spends the better part of the morning playing “I spy” with Max, and given the bleak landscape it turns out to be quite a repetitive game. But Max doesn’t mind. Junius takes the time he’s not on watch duty to write a letter to his family, as does Claudia. They want to inform their relatives at home that they’re on the way back and doing alright. The others joke a bit about Junius mentioning them in his letters, because they are quite a weird group and wonder what his family would say if they all appeared at their doorstep one day.
The first night of the trip is quiet, for the most part of the day Jeska and Claudia had been on guard duty, but neither of them had spotted anything suspicious apart from more ruined villages in the distance. In the evening everyone sleeps under the open sky, and even though a constant grey mist looms above caused by this Blight, the stars are bright enough to shine through it. Max talks about the constellations and the stories about them he was told from a young age on, back in his Hold in the south. Mira chimes in, telling the stories she knows instead, and Auron shares the tales that Aurora had told him. Harold wonders what Jeska thinks about the night sky, since it’s probably still a relatively new thing for her. She doesn’t say how long she’s been on the surface already, but it seems like the far open sky makes her feel uneasy or at least leaves her unimpressed.

The dagger of the 12th Legion
During a rest stop on the next day Harold and Junius have some time to themselves. Harold takes a dagger from his backpack that he then shows to Junius with the question if he ever saw something similar before. The dagger isn’t fancy or worth a particular amount of gold most likely, as is made from simple materials. Where the hilt meets the blade the bronze symbol of a stylized sand whirl is embedded. Harold says that it’s a dagger from the 12th Legion of the Imperial Forces. After thinking for a moment Junius says that, yes, a former client of his employer once came into the offices wearing a similar dagger at his belt, although with a different symbol. The dagger, while useful as a weapon, is nothing special in particular, but given to soldiers for their service. Junius wonders what the story behind the dagger is and how Harold got it. Harold stays a bit vague about it, only says that he recently received it and wonders, whom it could have belonged to before and what it’s good for. The “who” is here more important than the “what”, because he wants to find the dagger’s owner and also figure out what became of the 12th Legion.
While he is a soldier of the Imperial Forces himself, Harold never left his hometown of Bergrum, where young soldiers are trained and where he participated in many scouting missions. So despite his long servitude, Harold has not much of a clue about the bureaucracy behind the machine that is the Imperial Forces. Junius suggests that it might be worth a try to find the offices of the Imperial Forces somewhere in Vol Dorma, maybe they can give him some information on what he’d like to know. And if not, then Minrathous is still an option, because this is where the military has its headquarters. Harold thanks Junius for his suggestions and help and agrees that finding the office of the Imperial Forces in Vol Dorma sounds like a good plan.

The grrr kind, the big mean kind!
During the next night Auron is, as usual, awake before everyone else. He doesn’t really sleep much at all, and the mercenary sharing a cart with him and Max isn’t impressed. “Do you never sleep?” is what he asks right before handing his duty of keeping watch over to Auron before passing out. Auron, not wanting to wake up Maxfield, therefore does his best to keep an eye out for dangers. The night seems calm and quiet, it is very cold and dawn is still a couple of hours away. No torches or fires are lit to keep the caravan as concealed as possible from curious eyes, but thankfully the stars and moons offer only just enough light to look into the pale blue distance.
This is when Auron hears strange noises, a grunting, growling sound, far, far away. Anxiously looking over the edge of the cart he spots movement several miles away in the flat dry grasslands they’re in. It takes a few moments for him to recognize what he’s looking at, but then very quickly realizes that a group of darkspawn are passing by; including a considerable number of large genlock alphas that made the noises Auron heard. He quickly scoots over to Maxfield, still sleeping, and pokes him to wake up. It takes Max a few moments to fully come to his senses, but when he sees Auron impersonating the genlock alphas’ movement and sounds and hears the urge and fear in his voice he’s immediately fully awake. Auron shows him the horde in the distance, Maxfield readies his weapons, just in case, and then heads to their leaders to inform them about the sightings quietly. Valentin urges everyone to not panic and after brief discussion the decision is made to wait and just watch the darkspawn for a moment, as they seem to not have spotted the caravan yet. Indeed, after a few minutes passed, the horde still is only passing by in a few miles distance and eventually disappears again into the night.
Despite the sense of relief Max can’t go back to sleep afterwards.

The Gates of Vol Dorma
Another early start follows for the rest of the travellers as well as the morning of the last stretch of the journey with the Desert Crows dawns. It isn’t quite lunchtime yet when the carts arrive on a road seemingly starting in the middle of nowhere and leading to a not yet visible location. The road, about 20 feet wide, is well-travelled on by carts, horses and people, as the tracks left on it suggest. It isn’t paved in any way, but guarded and somewhat fortified by massive rocks on either side that have been put up as a protective barrier. Between each rock is a little gap only just big enough to squeeze through with some determination, and to allow a little bit of a view into the endless grassland beyond.
The caravan travels down the road for quite some time until finally at the horizon ahead a gigantic structure appears: the Imperial Highway. Seemingly continuing on forever in both southern and northern direction it’s the first sign of civilisation in days (for the more sophisticated ones among the civilians in weeks). With about a mile of road left ahead the group then catches their first glimpse at Vol Dorma, the massive city of trade and commerce located directly on the Highway. White walls, towers, and mansions rise high into the sky, and at the end of the road the group sees a gigantic fortress stretching alongside its full length, in the middle of its wall a large, golden shimmering gate that the caravan is headed to.
While Mira and Junius are still mesmerized by the view of the huge city, Harold spots a weirdly shaped dust cloud on the right side of the road. At first thinking it might be just the wind, the way the cloud moves so low above the ground leaves him sceptical. He quickly understands that something massive is moving fast beyond the barrier of rocks next to the road – and it’s coming for them.
Harold calls out to Valentin immediately to alert him of his discovery, Valentin and the other mercenaries in the lead promptly turning their heads, and it takes only moments until the first of them calls “Darkspawn to the right!”
Since the horde was spotted early, chances are that the caravan might be able to outrun them – the last couple of hundred yards to the city suddenly seem endlessly far away. The group urges Valentin to speed up and the horses are immediately pushed to run as fast as possible. The first carts pass by the approaching horde of darkspawn just as they reach the rocks to the side – it’s many of them, too many to fight them, and a considerable amount of the large genlock alphas Auron had spotted the night before. Their bodies are too heavy to climb the rocks, so they are stuck at the side of the road, nevertheless massive arms reach through the gaps trying to snatch some of the travellers racing by with their carts. At the same time the smaller genlocks and hurlocks this group is composed off try to squeeze through the gaps and get onto the road, and they manage to just as the last carts rush by. A group of four hurlocks, surprisingly agile and fast, immediately chases after the caravan at full speed, two-handed swords with sharp black blades drawn, growling and flashing their teeth.
Claudia, Jeska, and Max, the archers of the group, take a few shots at the hurlocks in an attempt to slow them down, but the creatures seem not too impressed by their attacks immediately. Auron is trying to figure out a way to help, but there is no chance any of his spells could reach the creatures currently. Looking back into the direction of the city the group sees that a lot of movement is happening on the watchtowers and walls above. Braziers are lit and a war horn is sounded to alert all soldiers available. Agonizingly slow the massive gate to the fortress is being opened – but not to its full extent. Valentin can be heard cursing, because the caravan in its current arrangement won’t fit through the doors if they’re not fully opened. The carts in the back need to be slowed down so that there’s enough space to drive closer together in the front to squeeze through the gate. This moves everyone but Jeska and Claudia, who are not far from the front, closer to the horde. Junius sees this as a chance though, because he actually gets in range to cast mind blast right in front of the four hurlocks. The creatures are caught off guard and catapulted into the air by the explosive energy of the spell, knocking them off their feet and increasing the distance between them and the caravan again. Further behind more and more genlocks and hurlocks manage to get onto the road and pick up the chase, but just then the first carts of the caravan race through the gate into the fortress. The hurlocks that were knocked down scramble back to their feet and dash forward after their prey – only to then be engulfed in a rain of fire pouring down on them from the watchtowers, as Vol Dorma’s battle mages secure the passage of the last carts into the city.
The massive doors of the fortress are slammed shut with a deafening roar, and behind the walls the growling of the darkspawn can still be heard as they are set on fire. The caravan, still at high speed as they enter, now is slowed down with a few breathless commands of Valentin as they finally find themselves in safety. A sigh of relief goes through the crowd, Max tightly embraces Auron, and everyone else is very thankful that Harold was the one to spot the horde in time before things got ugly on the last few steps of the journey.

The Bulwark
The caravan now travels through the Bulwark, the fortress that they had already heard about in Hemstetten, and the construction of which in the first place drew in the darkspawn that threatened the village so much in recent months. This structure of truly epic scale feels like a little city within the city, hundreds of soldiers patrolling and training within its walls where they live and spend the majority of their day. The caravan passes dozens of barracks and the group spots a special training area particularly dedicated to battle mages sparring with each other. Occasionally flames and blasts of electricity can be seen and heard behind a wall shielding the location off. In the distance Auron spots the large statue of a woman in the centre of the massive fortress, defiantly looking into the direction of the endless wasteland of the Anderfels, almost as if she wanted to say “We’re not giving up this easily.” She is no warrior, but instead is depicted wearing flowing robes, her long hair falling over her shoulders elegantly. Upon Auron asking “Who’s that?” the others explain that the woman appears to be Archon Cassiopeia, to whom this fortress is potentially dedicated to or was sponsored by. Next they pass a giant forge built from black stone and iron that would make even the dwarves envious. Dark grey smoke rises from three iron chimneys, the clanking sound of hammers can be heard from the inside, and Jeska scoffs a little as they drive by.
The caravan is now headed to the next gate, which is located in the rear wall of this fortress. This wall is built from a different, paler stone than the rest of the fortress, and seems much older. It is quite worn down, seemingly from hundreds of battles fought here, covered in cracks and scorch marks. In one location it looks as if a giant rock was flung against it in an attempt to tear it down. At the bottom of the huge wall reaching almost as high as the Imperial Highway itself some workers are in the process of setting up wooden scaffoldings to begin repairs on the wall. This used to be the former outer city wall of Vol Dorma, the last bastion against the darkspawn. Its golden gate is not quite as shiny anymore as the one of the new Bulwark, but it still leaves a majestic impression as the caravan approaches and is halted by two soldiers guarding it. One of them is carrying something that looks like a small mobile office, basically a tiny desk he’s carrying in front of him that is held up via two leather straps on his shoulders and around his back. The other speaks to Valentin, demanding some papers that the mercenary leader hands over. The soldiers inspect the papers, they receive a seal of approval, and Valentin is allowed to enter in the courtyard behind the fortress.
The caravan is now immediately below the Imperial Highway running through this courtyard behind the old wall, and they have to bend back far to be even able to look to its top. They also find themselves at the foot of a large tower adjacent to the Highway that is built from the same stone as both wall and the highway itself. It has a large rectangular gate at its bottom, but the room inside seems empty. A crowd consisting of civilian travellers and merchants has already gathered in front of the tower and the tower guards warn them to step back as a metallic sounds becomes audible from high within the tower. A platform is lowered within that has dozens of foot-long iron spikes attached to its bottom: a massive heavy-duty lift. After the group of civilians already waiting has been lifted up into the city, the caravan of the Desert Crows is also finally brought to the actual entrance of the city.

Departures and Farewells
At the top of the lift the caravan arrives at the Southern Emporium, a broad plaza dedicated to travelling merchants directly on the Imperial Highway and in front of Vol Dorma. A constant stream of people seems to be arriving and departing in this area, and the caravan actually has to be careful to not be in the way of anyone, particularly the merchants and their carts that arrive on the Imperial Highway. Even at this considerable height the city still looms majestically above them all like a white mountain. Valentin then calls everyone together for a final time to speak his farewells. He thanks the civilians for their trust and the mercenaries for their work, and he apologizes for the losses suffered during the darkspawn ambush a week ago. Then everyone is allowed to take back their belongings and depart, with the Desert Crows’ best wishes for their further journeys.
Junius takes the chance to once again speak to Teresa who again says her thanks for his and his companion’s help both the night after the attack and in Hemstetten. When Junius asks her about the Desert Crows’ future plans she says that they will remain in Vol Dorma for a few days, maybe for the First Day festival, while they wait for their carts to be repaired after this long trip. Afterwards they will leave. She mentions that Valentin has some plans, but stays vague, and isn’t sure if they’re ready to execute them yet. But most likely they will return to Hossberg next and then start yet another roundtrip around the Anderfels to aid refugees to safety. Junius voices his concerns regarding the rising darkspawn threat and Teresa agrees that it’s dark times indeed, but she is positive that they will manage. With that she bids him farewells and goes back to her assigned tasks.
In the meantime Mira and Maxfield speak to Valentin, because their payday finally arrived. For accompanying the mercenaries from Hossberg to Vol Dorma over the course of almost half a year they are rewarded with 9 Gold each. Valentin jokes that they shouldn’t spend it all at once but then remembers that they wanted the money to repair their ship. He wishes them the best of luck for their further travels and says he was very pleased with their work. Should they ever be in Hossberg again looking for work at the same time as the Desert Crows he would gladly hire them again. Upon Mira and Max asking about job opportunities in Vol Dorma he says that there used to be a noticeboard on the Forum, the main marketplace of the city. Most of the jobs are usually crap, but occasionally there are some very well-paid one-time opportunities available, too. And if they don’t find anything useful on the Forum, the city is huge; there’s certainly many ways to earn a few coins if you look around a bit. Before saying their farewells, Max and Valentin shake hands in friendship while Mira decides to give him a full-on hug. The reserved mercenary is a bit taken aback but eventually reciprocates the hug by patting Mira’s back. He thanks them once more, then Mira and Max return to their group.
Just as they get back and discuss what to do next, Vania approaches them. She, her mother-in-law, and her children are getting ready to leave on their further trip to Minrathous. Again she thanks Harold in particular for enabling them to even go on this journey, and the group as a whole for keeping Johann a secret to Valentin. Before turning to leave and after a moment of hesitation she hugs Harold, who reciprocates, and it feels a little as if the hug would last forever. It is an emotional moment, but eventually they part and with a smile Vania and her family wave goodbye, as does Harold. They hope to meet the group again someday, maybe in Minrathous.
Mira teases Harold a little and asks if he’d maybe rather like to travel with Vania and the children instead of them, but Harold says that he enjoys travelling with the group, which surprises Mira a bit. With that they decide that while the day is still young they could potentially find a marketplace to buy some new gear with the money they earned. Junius and Claudia also want to find a place to send their letters, so the group is headed for the city gates. Then they spot the two priests of Hemstetten, Verian and Amelius, who look a bit lost. Meanwhile dressed as regular civilians, no longer courtesans, the two men explain that they originally are from Vol Dorma, but their families wouldn’t be too happy about seeing them return. They are in the process of deciding where to go from here on, because they hadn’t actually thought to ever get this far after the attack on the temple. The group suggests that, if they know their way around the town, they could show them around a bit and in return be kept safe. They could find a place to stay for the night and think a bit more about future plans in a more relaxed environment than the busy Emporium. A little reluctantly they agree, although say that they’d rather not go to the upper level of the city, where the noble families and main temple are located. But they can show the group around a bit and proceed to lead them along the main road into the city.

The Forum
Vol Dorma is divided into two districts, northern and southern, of which each are again divided into three levels: the upper, middle, and lower level, all connected via dozens of staircases. Currently the group is on the middle level of the Southern District, also referred to as Highway Level due to being the entry point to and from the Imperial Highway. Following the main road they arrive on the main market place of Vol Dorma, the Forum: a massive rectangular plaza with dozens of market stalls between rows of trees. The plaza is surrounded by neat white stone houses, the ground itself cobbled with dark-grey slates. Workers are in the process of putting up decorations in the colours of the city, purple and silver, in preparation for the festival. Towards the northern exit of the Forum the group can spot a long bridge that leads out of the southern district across farmland to the Northern District, and the Forum itself is traversed by three bridges connecting different portions of the upper level above them, where they can spot tall mansions and lush parks and gardens. While Verian and Amelius help one part of the group with finding a blacksmith somewhere, Auron, Max, and Junius are on the lookout for a general goods store. The marketplace isn’t terribly busy – and thankfully it seems like today is not the day of a slave auction. Most of the people here are civilians that just arrived with the Desert Crows and also want to stock up their supplies.



Good as New
The Good as New, as Verian explained to the group, is a general goods store that also does the work of a pawn shop at times. They deal with new but also used wares, so one has to look around a bit to find something good, but sometimes it’s possible to find real treasures. Max, Auron, and Junius enter while the others head down the market a bit further to find a blacksmith.
The Good as New appears as a relatively small store from the outside, but upon entering it becomes apparent that that’s not true at all. Behind the small narrow front with a neat silver sign above the door lies a large store that lacks width but not depth and actually stretches across two stories. Located in the centre between two sets of stairs leading up is a large circular counter, where a tall, broad-shouldered Tevinter man in fine garments argues with one of his customers over the price of an item. His black hair is starting to grey, as is his neatly trimmed beard. Two apprentices can be seen running around the store tidying up and rearranging the items on display, young humans, probably about 16 years old. Since the owner seems busy, Maxfield decides to ask one of the apprentices, a red-headed girl, if they sell small glass bottles. Her referring to him as “my lord” sets him off a bit, but she then proceeds to show him exactly what he’d been looking for. In the meantime Auron and Junius explore the store on their own, Auron immediately being drawn to the back section that at first glance appeared like shelves of books, but then turned out to be shelves of books and all sorts of random trinkets and devices. He is immediately enthralled by the mechanical tools and things, not knowing what any of them do at all. Eventually his eyes fall on a little compass, the needle usually pointing to the north broken, rendering the device useless. Auron picks it up to buy it and in his excitement almost leaves the store before he remembers that he actually came here to see if the shop sells earmuffs. He has another look around the store, going up into the right section of the upper level, which turns out to be the pawnshop area. Surely dozens of old swords are stored here and potentially sold one day, as well as a variety of clothes and cloaks, but sadly Auron can’t find anything that resembles earmuffs among the dusty inventory. Disappointed he returns downstairs.
Meanwhile Junius has a look around the front section of the shop, which seems to be the display area for the most unique and probably also expensive items on sale. He spots a very large backpack with an abundance of little pouches attached to it. The assistant Max asked about flasks had also brought a weird string instrument to place it on one of the round pedestals located here to showcase it. When he sees Maxfield return from upstairs with his flasks he decides to have a look around there as well, because he wants to buy another healer’s kit. The upper level of the shop is divided into two parts separated by an archway. The left section features a variety of tools and containers, and after a little search Junius finds some… kind of iffy looking healer kits. Upon closer inspection he sees that these are expired or used to some degree, one containing a completely rusted pair of scissors, in another there is a potion bottle with a cork stopper slowly decaying and crumbling into the liquid below. Junius is tempted for a moment to switch the contents of the bags around, only picking the best ones out of all the kits and assembling his own, but then decides against it as the shopkeeper’s assistants keep running through the room. He doesn’t want to risk being caught and kicked out or worse.
Empty-handed he goes back down only to run into Auron who is proudly holding his purchase up to him. Auron shakes it and Junius can hear the compass needle rattling behind the glass. Upon realizing that Auron paid 50 silver for the useless tool Junius has to take a moment for himself, adjusting his glasses. Auron then explains that his friend Aurora once owned a compass very similar to this, but it broke as well when she slipped from the side of a rock and fell on it. She had it fixed in a nearby settlement, so maybe this one can be fixed as well. Despite the expensive purchase Junius is happy for Auron, because Auron seems extremely pleased with his rare find. Then the two of them along with Maxfield leave the store to catch up with the rest of their group at the nearby blacksmith.

Supporting the local businesses
The blacksmith of the Forum is a woman in her late 20s, with freckled tan skin and voluminous brown curls she tried to tame in a braid that’s resting on her shoulder. She knows her trade well and is ready to help with Harold’s request for a new plate armour, so she takes his measurements and goes into the storage area in the back. She returns to the small showroom of her forge with a simple, yet well-crafted plate armour that fits Harold nicely. She needs to replace the leather straps on the boots but promises that he can pick up the full suit of armour on the next morning if he pays in advance. Next up Jeska asks if she could make some crossbow bolts for her, but the blacksmith immediately sees that Jeska’s crossbow is of dwarven kind and a custom-built-model on top. She’s afraid that she has no experience in making dwarven bolts and recommends that Jeska goes to the Dwarven Quarter to find a merchant or blacksmith there. Something similar applies to Claudia’s small hand crossbow, which is also custom-built, although by a human craftsman. The blacksmith says that if Claudia lends her one of her bolts she could make a mould from it and then craft her the desired bolts potentially until the evening, but she can’t promise it due to having a bigger contract coming up in in the afternoon. Claudia agrees to this suggestion, pays for her work and leaves one of her bolts with the blacksmith. She also wants to know if she has any boots for sale, but the blacksmith has to disappoint her, as she’s more a metalworker and not so much a leatherworker. She recommends checking out the store “Silver Linens” in the upper level of the city. They mostly sell clothing but also have a great reputation for shoes and boots. When she hears this Mira fears already that the blacksmith probably also won’t have a leather coat available, something she is looking for, and the blacksmith has to disappoint her. She says she could have a look at the “Silver Linens” store as well, or alternatively see if there is a tanner or leatherworker in the lower level. She also says that, should they go to the lower level, they should hurry so that they don’t end up being surprised by the night while being down there. While she can’t buy a coat or other leather armour here Mira then proceeds to purchase a finely crafted main-gauche, an off-hand parry weapon she had been wanting to get for a while. The thin blade is framed by two snakes as its cross guard, their bodies entwined forming the hilt of the weapon. In this moment Max, Auron, and Junius enter, and Maxfield purchases some additional arrows as well as throwing knives and a dagger.
Just as the group is ready to go and leaves the blacksmith’s shop again, they accidentally bump into two people just passing by in front of the store. Mira and Maxfield where downright flabbergasted when they realized that they knew these other travellers well.

Notes

In-Game Date: 25th of Cassus – 27th of Cassus; early morning – afternoon
Highlights:

• Everyone hates the bell-guy who rings the bell way too early in the morning
• Jeska wants to shoot the bell-guy but doesn’t know who it is
• Auron knows who it is, but isn’t telling
• Is Auron the bell-guy??
• Junius writing his letter home, trying to phrase that he’s travelling in good company; writes “friends” then crosses it out, writes “companions”, crosses that out, too, and so on
• He also writes, if he doesn’t return home alive, they “know where the tea collection is”
• Road trip to Junius’ family’s house!!
• Auron pokes Maxfield’s face to wake him up: “There’s the, the grrr kind, the urgh, the big mean kind!!!”
• Auron and Max play “I spy” for 5 hours; “I spy with my little eye something…. Brown!” – “Is it a rock?” – “:D!!!”
• Harold probably played “I spy” by himself when he spotted the darkspawn next to the road, saving everyone

Report Date

01 Dec 2018

Primary Location

Vol Dorma

Secondary Location

Anderfels